Body Mass Index: What You Need To Know

BMI or Body Mass Index is a health measurement. The measurement indicates body weight measured in pound in proportion to the height measured in feet for adults. BMI does not tell if a person is suffering from any sort of disease.

There are several tools for measuring body mass index. These tools can indicate whether you are underweight, normal, overweight or obese. Studies have revealed that if your body mass index is 17-32 then you have a longer life expectancy.

Age and gender have been found to have a different influence upon a person’s body mass index. It has been seen that men have less fat than women with the same body mass index. BMI can also related to a person’s health condition. Increased BMI can add to the risk of the occurrence of some diseases.

If you have a high body mass index then you can be at risk of having some diseases. Some of these diseases can be high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. High BMI is not an indicator of these diseases, but it indicates that there is a high risk of these diseases happening.

There are certain universally accepted classifications of BMI levels to adjudge the condition of human beings. A person is obese if his/her BMI level is 30 or greater. A person is overweight if his BMI level is 25-29.9. Similarly, if a person has 18.8-24.9 BMI then his weight is normal. An underweight person will have less than 18.5 BMI.

You can calculate your body mass index and see if you are healthy or not. If your body mass index is not up to the prescribed health levels then you can always work out or take medication to bring it to the prescribed levels. If your body mass is under 25 then you can breath easy as it indicates normal weight. In case your body mass is either less than 18 or greater than 30 you have some serious work to do. You could either be underweight or obese. Body mass index is a good indicator of your overall health condition.